NY Politician Demands Ban Of Video Game... Not Available In The US

from the moral-panic dept

There was a flutter of controversy last week, when someone realized that a rather despicable video game, where the goal of gameplay is apparently to rape someone, was available for sale via Amazon's marketplace (where 3rd party sellers offer items, rather than Amazon itself). Amazon was quick to block the sale of the game, but that hasn't stopped a politician in NY from using the story as an opportunity to grandstand. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is demanding US publishers boycott distributing the game, which seems pretty silly since no US publishers are distributing the game (it's only been released in Japan), and there's no indication anyone wants to distribute the game in the US. But why should that stop a good opportunity to create some moral panic?

Re: Re: Re: Title?

just a couple things
To be fair, she only demanded a boycott, not a ban, which is rather different (perhaps she might understand there is a right to make such a game, regardless of how despicable people may find the content)

"where the goal of gameplay is apparently to rape someone"
The game is full of rape scenes and multiple females, rather than just trying to rape one individual.

there's a HUGE amount of such games on the Japanese market. Most of them are simple point-and-click things meant to titillate a very small niche demographic. Can't wait till she stumbles on the tentacle rape genre.

Its also very telling that even though Amazon blocked the game (which it isn't legally obligated to do), this opportunistic bag of shit STILL jumped on Amazon for having it AT ALL.

Re: Re: Re:

I actually try to maintain a collection of banned games, I play them once to see what they are really like so I can chime my opinion about them, but many of them are not the sorts of games I go out when I just want to waste my time having fun.

That is really sick. I'm going to go ahead and guess anybody involved in this game (playing, buying, developing, supporting or even not opposing it) knows anyone who has been raped. That is, unless they themselves were the rapists.

Re:

Believe it or not, most people (and children) are intelligent enough to separate reality from fiction and draw some kind of entertainment value from it. It may not be your cup of tea (nor mine) but I don't feel the need to take some kind of moral high ground and start labeling people either. This is essentially an interactive cartoon. No real person got raped.

How about getting "outraged" over this....this elected official has felt it more important to spend taxpayer money pursuing this ridiculous cause rather than perhaps addressing the fact that some rapists with multiple offenses get released with a minimum of treatment or how likely they might be to re-offend. That NYC's murder rate is once again climbing.....or any number of far more important issues are NOT being addressed because of this grandstanding slob.

I tried to have a game banned some years ago. Most of the game involved some irresponsible plumber carelessly stomping on mushrooms and turtles. And I found the whole idea of him saving a princess rather misogynistic.
No one listened. It's good some politicians still care enough to not just think of the children but act on behalf of the children.

Re:

the thing most people don't seem to understand if that sick twisted people will be sick and twisted regardless of whether or not they play the latest and greatest rape simulator, on the other hand people who feel no compulsion to act on those feelings will not suddenly decide to throw away all of their previous behavioral patterns on the basis of a pixelated fantasy.